A simple numerical scheme was presented for simulating partial equilibrium solidification with complete interstitial and negligible substitutional solute back-diffusion in multi-component and multi-phase systems. Based on this scheme, a computing tool capable of using thermodynamic databases directly was developed for the estimation of the solidification behavior of steels and other interstitial-containing alloys. Agreement between calculated and experimental results was obtained with regard to microsegregation, fraction of eutectic and freezing range for several steels. This suggested that the partial equilibrium assumption and proposed numerical scheme were reasonable, and confirmed that C back-diffusion played a very important role in the solidification of steels.

Computation of Partial Equilibrium Solidification with Complete Interstitial and Negligible Substitutional Solute Back Diffusion. Q.Chen, B.Sundman: Materials Transactions, 2002, 43[3], 551-9